Arista Announces Datacenter Switches

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Arista Networks, Inc., introduced its newest member to its software defined cloud network: the Arista 7000 X Series, with the Arista 7300 and Arista 7250 delivering a resilient architecture, enhanced programmability, control of virtualized networks, improved power efficiency, and price/performance optimized for universal cloud and datacenter deployments. Powered by Arista EOS the Arista 7000 X Series optimizes costs, automates provisioning, and builds more reliable scale-out architectures endorsed by an open ecosystem of partners.

Complementing Aristaís pioneering two-tier leaf-spine designs based around Aristaís 7500E and 7x50 Series, customers can simplify cabling, consolidate servers, migrate between virtual to physical networks and control IP storage as well as big data and business applications with a Spline network. By collapsing the leaf and spine together into a single-tier network for performance and latency sensitive cloud applications, operating and capital asset costs are lowered by 40 percent. This brings deterministic performance for up to 2,000 hosts in one cluster.

The Arista 7300 and 7250X series achieve new levels of performance and density with resilient control planes at an optimized and linear cost model for the next-generation data center creating a new deployment model: the Spline Network.

At the heart of the data center, Arista provides a single binary image of Arista EOS, purpose-built for open-cloud applications. Arista EOSís unique foundation is a state-driven multiprocessing operating system optimized for mission-critical networks.

Key highlights include Zero Touch Provisioning to simplify network deployment, Smart System Upgrade to maximize up-time and availability with F5; OpenWorkload to integrate with orchestration, virtualization, and provisioning tools in OpenStack, Microsoft System Center, and VMware NSX; wireless/wired integration with Aruba, Scale out Security with Palo Alto Networks, and Network Telemetry with Splunk and Riverbed. Based on an unmodified modular Linux kernel coupled with an industry standard CLI, no other network operating system is as proven, open, extensible, feature-rich and capable of dramatic operational savings.

The Arista 7300 is comprised of three chassis: the Arista 7304, 7308, and 7316 with four-, eight-, and sixteen-line card slots respectively. All three share a common resilient architecture that scales up to 512 ports of 40 GbE or 2,048 ports of 10 GbE, with wire-speed performance of 40 Tbit/s (terabits per second) of throughput. X Series line card modules for the Arista 7300 include 10 G BASE-T, SFP, and QSFP configurations. Front-to-rear and rear-to-front airflow options along with platinum-rated power supplies allow for improved efficiency and middle-of-row Spline configurations.

Two Arista 7316 Series systems can fit in a single 42RU rack supporting over 4,000 10 GbE ports. With power consumption under 3W per 10GbE port and latency under 2 microseconds, a pair of 7300 series switches replaces two Catalyst 6509Es with more than ten times the scale, throughput, latency improvement, and power efficiency.

Complementing the 7300X series, the Arista 7250X Series is a high density solution delivering 64 ports of wire-speed 40 GbE or up to 256 Ports of 10 GbE in a compact and power efficient two rack unit fixed form factor with redundant and hot-swap power supplies and fan modules. Key features on the 7300X and 7250X Series:

Unified Forwarding Table. The Layer 2 MAC table and Layer 3 routing tables dynamically expand based on the application to support up to 288K MAC entries, or 144K routes.

New Duplex Fiber 40 GbE Optics. Support for Aristaís LRL4 QSFP optics requiring a single pair of single mode fiber, reducing the fiber requirements by 75 percent compared to existing choices.

The Arista 7300 and 7250 Series are key components of the Arista Software Defined Cloud Network. The 7250QX-64 is available now and shipping for $1,500 per 40 GbE port. The 7300X series are available in Q1 2014 from $500 per 10 GbE port.

Six different communications service providers join to debate their visions of the future CSP, following a landmark presentation from AT&T on its massive virtualization efforts and a look back on where the telecom industry has been and where it's going from two industry veterans.

Level 3 Communications' Chief Security Officer Dale Drew says service providers, manufacturers and even consumers must combine to halt massive DDoS attacks using IoT devices in botnets. The solution he has in mind includes reputation-based routing by the service provider but also more secure endpoint devices and greater consumer awareness.

Chris Novak, director of the Verizon Enterprise Solutions Risk Team, explains that enterprises who don't conduct a thorough audit of their assets often leave some things unprotected because they don't know they exist. Many times these unprotected assets are part of corporate M&A activity but left unshielded they can become a hacker's playground, he tells Light ...

Adrian Scrase, CTO at standards body ETSI, talks about the various initiatives and specifications developments related to NFV, 5G and NGP (next-generation protocols) that will underpin next-gen networks.

GeSI is a global e-Sustainability Initiative organization bringing together 40 big multinational companies around the world. According to GeSI's report, information and communication technology can make the world more sustainable. Luis Neves, chairman of GeSI, shared with us his opinion at Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF2016).

Mobile revenues are declining. Digicel, a player in the Caribbean telecommunications/entertainment space, has found a new way to engage customers and drive revenue. John Quinn, CTO of Digicel, shared with us its story at Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF2016)

Altibox is the biggest fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) player and the largest provider of video and TV in Norway. They started out with zero customers in 2002. Now they have close to half a million households and companies attached to their FTTH business. Nils Arne, CEO of Altibox shared with us their story and insight on 5G at Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF2016).

GeSI is a global e-Sustainability Initiative organization bringing together 40 big multinational companies around the world. According to GeSI's report, information and communication technology can make the world more sustainable. Luis Neves, chairman of GeSI, shared with us his opinion at Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF2016).

Mobile revenues are declining. Digicel, a player in the Caribbean telecommunications/entertainment space, has found a new way to engage customers and drive revenue. John Quinn, CTO of Digicel, shared with us its story at Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF2016)

Altibox is the biggest fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) player and the largest provider of video and TV in Norway. They started out with zero customers in 2002. Now they have close to half a million households and companies attached to their FTTH business. Nils Arne, CEO of Altibox shared with us their story and insight on 5G at Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF2016).

At Ultra-broadband Forum, Houlin Zhao, Secretary General of ITU, discussed how important it is for countries, companies and everybody to be working together to help to build the broadband and digital economies (UBBF2016).

ETSI has created an Industry Specification Group to work on Next Generation Protocols (NGP ISG), looking at evolving communications and networking protocols to provide the scale, security, mobility and ease of deployment required for the connected society of the 21st century. The NGP ISG will identify the requirements for next generation protocols and network ...

Digital Object Architecture provides a basic information infrastructure that can facilitate interoperability between or among different systems, processes, and other information resources, including different identity management systems. Digital objects are networked objects that are named by digital object identifiers and instantiated by an infrastructure service ...

Huawei's new CloudVPN Integration Services Solution reduces the complexity of enterprise-leased lines. The new solution was a joint development between Huawei and ten other vendors, including Fortinet and Infoblox.

Join us for an in-depth interview between Steve Saunders of Light Reading and Alexis Black Bjorlin of Intel as they discuss the release of the company's Silicon Photonics platform, its performance, long-term prospects, customer expectations and much more.

Even when there's a strong pipeline of female talent in the comms industry, it tends to leak all the way to the top. McKinsey & Company says women experience pipeline leakage at three primary points: being unable to enter, being stuck in the middle or being locked out of the top. Each pipeline pain point presents its own challenges, but also opportunities to stop the leak. Wireless operator Sprint is making a conscious effort to improve its own pipeline from new recruits to the C-suite, and it wants the rest of the industry to do the same. In this Women in Comms radio show, WiC Board Member and Sprint Vice President of Enterprise Sales Nelly Pitocco will give us her take on the industry's pipeline challenges. Pitocco, who joined Sprint in May and has spent 20 years in the comms industry, will also offer solutions, share how Sprint is tackling the challenge within its own organization and take your questions live on air.